The religious sect known in Scottish ecclesiastical history as the Glasites, was
founded by the Rev. John Glas, Minister of the Parish of Tealing. He was a son
of the manse, born in Auchtermuchty in 1695. His father was called to Kinclaven,
where John received his first schooling. He went on to the grammar school in
Perth, where he apparently acquired great proficiency in Latin and Greek! After
studying philosophy and theology at St. Andrew’s and Edinburgh Universities, he
was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Perth, and soon afterwards, in 1719,
he was ordained Minister of Tealing. In 1721 he married Catherine Black, the
eldest daughter of a Perth minister. The marriage was a happy and certainly, a
prolific one. They had no less than 15 children - all of whom predeceased him,
as did his wife, who died of tuberculosis in 1749, 24 years before him. Glas was
by all accounts, a most kind-hearted man, very fond of children, a most humane
man, with not a trace of fanaticism or bigotry. He was something of a scholar,
too, but with no streak of pedantry or conceit, but with a most engaging share
of a quality perhaps not so wide spread amongst the ministry of that age - the
common touch. He had a tremendous sympathy with the poor, for the ordinary folk
of the parish, and would not take a penny from the wealthy admirers who sent him
money. It was all shared out to the needy of the parish. When warned by his
father that he would meet bitter opposition to his views and his attempts to
restore the original worship and order of the New Testament Church, he retorted,
that if he could get but a dozen shepherds at the foot of “Seidla’ Hill” to
consort with him in the love of truth, he would be happy:
His Theology
The basis of his theology was that he would under no circumstances accept the
control in any form of state over Church. His convictions were that the Church
of Christ was a spiritual fellowship, and had no relation with the kingdom of
the world.
Another of his tenets was that a magistrate had no right to punish a man for
heresy.
His preaching caused him to be suspended and deposed by the first Presbytery of
Dundee, and later a similar action was implemented by the Synod of Angus and
Mearns.
Some 12 years later this was rescinded, but he was no longer to be a minister of
the Church of Scotland He was subsequently made an honorary burgess of the City
of Dundee.
Influenced
History records that by the doctrines of John Glas, many people were influenced
in many places of Scotland, England, Wales, indeed, in London and America, but
nevertheless, the Glasite Church died because of hardness of discipline.
John Glass died on the 2nd November 1773, aged 78, and was buried in the Howff
in Dundee. His tombstone reads:
“His character in the Churches of Christ, is well known
and will outlive all monumental inscriptions”
Glasite Museum.
There are a few Glasite relics in a show-case in the Glasite Hall.
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| A leather bound book in the hand-writing of John Glas, entitled “Ane Explication of the Westminster Assembly’s Shorter Catechism”. The date is 1720. |
Published notes on the Scripture-Texts by John Glas. Edinburgh 1747 |
A wall-hanging wooden collection box | Used in church to time the Minister's Sermons | Model of the Pulpit and Precentor's Desk in the Glasite Church |
Copper printer’s plate of Mr Robert Sandeman, Glas’s son-in-law, who spread the sect south of the border and founded the ‘Sandemanians’ in England. |
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Pair of Communion Cups inscribed ‘This Cup belongs to the Congregational Church of Tealing 1729’.
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Soup Tureen, used latterly by the Glasites, and presented to Mrs Rattrary, as a memento, at the dissolution of the congregation in the 1920’s. Presented to St Andrew’s Church by Mr C S McCulloch, Dundee, March 1975. |
Cutlery used by the Glasite Congregation at the meal which followed the service.
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Pitchpipe used by the precentor in the old Dundee Glasite (Kail) Kirk | A Sundial | On the wall outside the old Glasite Church |
